From the author of The Covenant of Water and New York Times
bestseller Cutting for Stone: a story of medicine in the American
heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears.
"Remarkable.... An account of the [AIDS] plague years in America.
Beautifully written...by a doctor who was changed and shaped by his
patients." --The New York Times Book Review
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson
City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American
life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a
crisis that had once seemed an "urban problem" had arrived in the town
to stay.
Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor
specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity
the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and
female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take
over his life. Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City:
as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to
people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of
grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this
conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency.
